A career shaped by patients and discovery

From Bloomington to academic research and community practice, Dr. Jones reflects on the decisions that shaped his career.

This narrative may help to portray my career experience, as listed on my C.V.(s).

I returned to my hometown (Bloomington, IN) from residency to attend to my mother, who soon passed away from cancer. My father served as Indiana University’s business manager there, and helped me in many ways to open a practice. There was local need for an eager orthopedist and I was pleased to feel well equipped. Soon I was able to put up a building across from the E.R. After a few years, I longed to influence the care of more than one patient at a time. I sought wise counsel, inquired about my options, and received a call from the Chair at U Penn (Dr. Carl Brighton) who offered me an NIH fellowship and part time practice that would create skills for an academic career. After three years in Philadelphia, I returned to Chapel Hill N.C. as a budding clinical investigator. My lab mentor at UNC was a well-known NIH-sponsored growth factor researcher (cartilage, dwarfism, transgenic mice) and I was assigned clinically to a new UNC contract to staff the Ortho Trauma service in Raleigh.

I soon found myself heavily involved at the two sites - the post-doc lab and the trauma center 35 miles away - and eventually was led to conclude that neither venture was likely to prove secure and satisfying as it was. My children liked the area and wanted to stay put, so after my contract period I returned to more conventional practice. I commuted 30 miles to a for-profit hospital collaboration for a few years until two friends, spine surgeon colleagues who had gone out into the community, suggested I do their general orthopedics and leave the spine care to them. Later, as our community hospital was acquired by a university system, my practice was less affected and I assumed leadership of the practice and eventually added two more general orthopedists. Eventually, our referring practices were purchased and my block time and call was reallocated to university-employed surgeons. I took on locums jobs at remote N.C. hospitals to supplement my practice for a few years, and enjoyed it.

One of my partners strongly encouraged me to work in the V.A system. He’s been a good friend since residency in Minnesota. We reconnected as faculty at UNC, where he was the joint replacement specialist for nearly 30 years. He eventually joined my Chapel Hill practice, where he was asked to cover the Durham V.A. part time in revision surgery with residents and fellows. He has a strong academic reputation, is active in long-term clinical research, and has enjoyed his V.A. involvement.

My wife Cathie and I decided to move to Fort Myers in 2014 to work at the new V.A. facility as the first orthopedist to operate at the site, encouraged by a highly involved and gifted orthopedic chair at the St. Petersburg Bay Pines V.A. Center. Delays frustrated the process and the patients, and after two years I was still without subordinates. When the opportunity to help a local surgeon with his new practice venture arose, I accepted. Soon, grandchildren arrived in the D.C. area and we opted to move back north.

My clinical interests remain broad, but given the move towards subspecialization I have gradually given up spine surgery, limited my pediatrics to only injury care, didn't take up hip or elbow arthroscopy and focused more on community orthopedic trauma and joint replacement. I haven’t performed surgery for pelvis or acetabular trauma in more than a decade. I’m experienced with most hand, foot and sports procedures but carry out only the most common types of those now. My joint replacement experience is broad, including revisions.

Other skills include worker comp case management, and medical legal evaluations and testimony for both sides. I have practiced in a variety of settings, including as owner/director of two practices and as an employed physician.

My aim is to continue to use my experience and skill as orthopedic surgeon for the benefit of patients in a contemporary care delivery setting. I am healthy. I recently recertified by the Am Board of Orthopedic Surgeons until 2036, and I am subcertified in Orthopedic Sports Medicine.